Bras of knitted fabric are known for use particularly as sports bras worn during physical activity because of their inherent stretchability and resulting body conformability. Because of the comfort of such bras, their use is not limited only to wear during physical activities, but are desirable and advantageous for general use as well.
Conventional knitted bras may be formed of circular knit tubes with the circumference of the tubes extending around the torso of the wearer, or the tube being flattened and cut to form integral shoulder straps and folded to form front and rear bra portions that are secured together at side seams. In either case, time consuming and expensive cutting and sewing operations are required, resulting in an expensive waste of cut away material. Also, importantly, shoulder straps are either formed from separate pieces of edging or ribbons of fabric having ends secured to the main body portion, or the tube is knit of sufficient height to provide material for integral strap portions, resulting in an additional waste of material. Further, uncomfortable and conspicuous edge binding material or ribbons are conventionally required to cover the edges of the main body portion and the edges of the shoulder straps.
There are also tubular knit bras which are formed of flattened knit tubes with ends sewn or connected to form a body encircling two ply fabric. An illustration of this type of bra is disclosed in Novi U.S. Pat. No. 3,772,899, which discloses breast pocket portions formed by distending the fabric by forming and stabilizing by heat and pressure. The disclosed bra is strapless or, alternatively, has conventional shoulder straps secured to the main body portion. Another example of a strapless circular knit bra is disclosed in Albright U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,745, which discloses a tubular knit fabric that is slit axially to form two separate single ply bras that extend around the torso of the wearer with breast pocket peripheries formed of elastic fabric. This patent also discloses a single ply tubular knit strapless bra with its axis extending vertically of the wearer and with edges knit with turned welts.
While the prior art discloses tubular knit bras that are flattened to form a two ply fabric that encircles the body of the wearer, such prior art bras either are strapless or utilize conventional narrow, relatively hard, shoulder straps and are not knit in a varying pattern that provides any different structural fabric characteristics in different areas of the bra for advantageous fitting characteristics, except for the breast pocket areas.